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Health Habits
If you have osteoarthritis,
you may be sensitive to
vegetable members of the
“deadly nightshade family.
“
the waste products of that immune
attack have been flushed away.
If you have rheumatoid arthritis, you
want to eat less of the foods that can
amplify inflammation in your system.
Generally speaking, that’s foods high
in saturated fat and sugar, or highly
processed foods: butter, high fat dairy,
deep fried food, pastries, cakes, etc.
There are also foods that actively
fight inflammation: Oily fish like
tuna salmon and sardines, fresh
vegetables, especially leafy greens,
and fresh fruit.
If you want to tone down the
inflammation in your joints, plan
your menu with these foods in mind:
Sardines and tomato on toast for
breakfast, a large salad for lunch and
an evening meal that includes lots of
fresh, lightly steamed vegetables.
Osteoarthritis: When it
hurts to move
Osteoarthritic joints also contain
an inflammatory process, but for a
different reason. Here, the protective
layer of cartilage that covers the end
of your bones has been worn away
and not rebuilt. As unprotected bits of
bone grind together, you will feel pain.
This is why osteoarthritic joints tend to
feel worse the more you move.
If you have osteoarthritis, you
may be sensitive to vegetable
members of the deadly nightshade
family (although not everyone is).
That’s potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant,
capsicum and chilli. Also, foods that
have an acid-forming effect on your
body pH may make your symptoms
worse; that’s tea, bread, biscuits, cakes
and dairy food.
The meal plan of a person with
osteoarthritis should contain lots of
anti-inflammatory foods like oily fish
and unprocessed vegetables; just give
the deadly nightshade family a miss if
you’re sensitive to them.
Gouty arthritis: When your
toes bite back
Gouty joints can deliver excruciating
pain because of dysfunctional
biochemistry. Gout is often inherited,
with an inborn metabolic defect in
processing purines in some kinds of
food. What happens as a result is that
the unprocessed molecules can form
crystals when they gather in large
enough concentration. The smaller
blood vessels in areas where there
is naturally low circulation, like your
feet, are where the crystals are likely
to form. Crystals have sharp edges;
hence the pain.
For people with gouty arthritis,
avoiding foods high in purines is a
top priority. High purine foods are
salty seafood, stock cubes, offal (like
liver and kidneys), alcohol, coffee and
black tea.
Helping your joints stay
healthy
If you’re blessed with healthy joints,
there are some foods that will actively
help them stay that way. The general
rule of thumb is to choose foods
that are as unprocessed as possible,
like high-quality protein from eggs,
fish, chicken and other meats, fresh
vegetables eaten raw or lightly
cooked, raw nuts, some legumes and
fresh fruit. If you focus on deliberately
including these foods in your diet,
there will be just a little room left for
the foods that you don’t need much
of (like sugar and pastries).
Test and measure
If you’d like to experiment to find out
what effect a particular food group
could be having on your joint pain,
the best way to do this is to keep a
written record of your pain levels over
a week, along with what you ate, while
maintaining your usual diet. Then
exclude one potentially problematic
food group from your diet for two
weeks, while you keep the record
keeping going.
Finally, reintroduce the suspect
food group and keep records for
another week. You might uncover
some interesting results.
Olwen Anderson is a naturopathic
nutritionist.
Visit olwenanderson.com.au •
www.rotarydownunder.org 51